Sermon by Pastor. Alex
2 Corinthians 11:2-4 I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
Here we see the concern Paul had for the Corinthian church that he wanted to present them as a pure bride. His concern here was not that they would backslide, but they would be deceived from the sincere devotion. His concern was they would be deviated from the full truth. How will that happen?
Satan was the first one to practice re-branding. He will re-brand Jesus and present him in an image you are comfortable with. That’s why Paul said ‘Another Jesus.’
Secondly, he will replace the spirit that is manipulating you from the Holy Spirit to probably a seducing spirit. He will then subscribe to another gospel. So, it is a subtle deception. It is not to remove you totally from the way but to remove you from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ by presenting a Christ that you can subscribe to; A Christ you are comfortable with since there will be no demand on you.
Basically, we know the Gospel is – Seek first the kingdom of God and all things will be added to you. But now another gospel says to ask forgiveness and go to church and just carry on with your life. This is a “Forgiveness-only Gospel” and some people subscribe to it. Then some have a consumer mindset. They want all the blessings. This is the “Prosperity Gospel.” Then some claim scriptures for their own life. That is, they say this is my right as a child of God. But the focus is on claiming the scripture but not building the life according to that scripture.
How did the Gospel deviate in all these ways? Because of what was already in the people’s hearts. Self-deception starts because of what already exists in our hearts.
Jeremiah 17: 9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
A heart that is not surrendered and submitted to the will of God is very dangerous.
Becoming Christ-like is a process. It means to come into full submission. The enemy will try to deviate us in this process.
Deuteronomy 11: 16 Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them.
It warns us that if we are not careful our hearts can deviate us. Deception starts in our own hearts. There is something already in our hearts that the enemy can use to seduce and lead us astray. We gravitate towards things that are precious in our hearts. We are already warned that Self Deception is the most dangerous deception.
Generally, Paul warned us about few things.
- 1 Corinthians 3:18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise.
If we think we can take on this world with the wisdom that we have, knowledge that we have, we can be defeated because the enemy is far superior in knowledge and understanding. We really need to tap into the Holy Spirit because He knows everything and He thinks 10 steps ahead of the enemy. He is Omniscient – He knows everything.
- 1 John 1:8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
We must always have a repentant heart. We are a work in progress continuously. We are never in a position of maturity until God has stopped dealing with us. Then we can recognize the fruits, the manifestation of Christ’s nature in us.
- Hebrews 12:8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.
If there is no ongoing discipline from God then we are not growing because God disciplines those He loves.
- Hebrews 12:6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.
If there is no dealing of God in our lives then we are not growing. It is something we need to be concerned about. The problem is probably our connection with God that is cut off. We have to measure our relationship with God this way.
If there is no dealing but only blessings and love, then we should be concerned. If God is consistently dealing with us, disciplining us, then it is a good sign because it shows He loves us and He wants us to become like His Son.
These are general warnings – depending on our own wisdom, how we see ourselves, and how we measure our relationship with God. If there is no dealing, only love and blessings, then something is wrong somewhere.
2 Timothy 4: 3 – 4 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
Self-deception makes us spiritually blind.
Untamed desires will lead to selective obedience.
It means we will only obey what suits/fits into the lifestyle we are subscribing to. Whatever is our preference we will keep doing, the rest of the gospel we will chuck it aside. Self-deception starts from the inside. Whatever is inside already is what attracts us and pushes us to hear what we want to hear.
Romans 12: 1 – 3 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will. For by the grace given me, I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
Look at the progress of these 3 verses. First, he says you must present your life as a spiritual sacrifice. Then he tells you, that you must transform your mind. Then he gives you a warning. Be careful that your mind doesn’t go in this way – Don’t think of yourself more highly than what you are.
Think of yourself with sober judgment. Honestly evaluate where you are.
We must understand.
– where we are in our walk with God
– what we carry
– how much we are built inside rather than what we are doing
All these things must be a measurement for us as we present our lives as a spiritual sacrifice. We must be careful that we don’t measure ourselves more than what we actually are. There is a way to measure what has been built inside. We can see what we really carry. We must understand our grace and what God has actually called us to do. His will; our assignment.
Whatever God has called us to do He gives us grace.
Ephesians 3:7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power.
Sometimes we have not been built but we want to do those things. That’s why there must be a proper measurement; a system or a way to know where we really are. Otherwise, we will be deceived into running ahead of God which is also a sin.
7 types of deception we face in church
- Religious Deception
Colossians 2:8 Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.
Colossians 2:16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration, or a Sabbath day.
1 Timothy 4: 1-3 Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times, some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. These people are hypocrites and liars, and their consciences are dead. They will say it is wrong to be married and wrong to eat certain foods. But God created those foods to be eaten with thanks by faithful people who know the truth.
The first way some people measure themselves is by religious activities. Some people fast 40 days, 3 to 4 times a year. They use that to measure their spirituality which is not actually true.
True spirituality is God’s outworking in our lives and our obedience to God’s word.
So, the whole religious deception is based on the type of activities. If you fast for a long time, you are a holy person or if you don’t marry for the sake of Christ then you are a very religious person. Man-made laws and traditions, you keep them, then you are holy. You eat only one meal a day, you pray continuously for a long time, 24/7 prayer tower, etc., then you are a holy person. All these are activities but it is not a measure of what God is really doing inside our lives. So, this is religious deception – the deception comes through the church itself based on activities.
2. Doctrinal deception
James 1:22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.
The first error that people get into is that they just accumulate the truth; they don’t work out the truth.
In the same book, he gives an example where he shows the reading of the word as a man looking into a mirror. Say your hair is messy, if you don’t do something about it, you are still going to be in the same condition.
2nd aspect is to understand the purpose of the Word
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.
The word comes for this purpose – to teach us and correct us.
3rd aspect of doctrinal deception is the way we interpret the Word.
2 Timothy 2:15 Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.
Example: Some people say the thief who died next to Jesus was never baptized. So, there is no need to be baptized. But the context is different. They choose to interpret the Bible this way. They choose to believe that there is no need to live a holy life and then when we are just about to die, we confess every sin and go to heaven.
I actually had a friend who was “born Christian” and he had a master plan. He said, “I will continue to live as I wish and just before I die, I will confess to the Lord all my sins.” He used to mock us because we were all converts and according to him, second-class Christians. When he was working as an engineer in Turkey, he died in an earthquake. It happened early in the morning and he probably didn’t have time to confess and simply died in his sleep.
Before people choose to interpret scripture in the wrong way, they actually choose to live life on their own terms.
Romans 10:9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
People use this scripture and say if they confess with their mouths and believe in their hearts and they enter into a church they are saved all the way. But it is only the beginning of a process. After this initial entry, we have to evaluate where we are and then align our lives according to the pattern shown by God. We have a pattern. The pattern is everything we hear must be measured according to whether we are becoming like Christ. Whatever we hear or learn if it’s not taking us in that direction, we have to be very wary.
3. Ethical deception
They profess the lordship of Christ but lack integrity.
Romans 16:17,18 And now I make one more appeal, my dear brothers and sisters. Watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people’s faith by teaching things contrary to what you have been taught. Stay away from them. Such people are not serving Christ our Lord; they are serving their own personal interests. By smooth talk and glowing words, they deceive innocent people.
We recently had to deal with a Church issue where the whole leadership team rebelled against the Pastor. The pastor was actually abusing them financially and verbally. If someone was getting married, they had to buy clothes for their whole family and so on. All these are unbiblical practices and not sure where he learned this from. He is a sincere man, who loves God but there are desires in his heart that he did not allow the Lord to deal with in his life. God has used him for preaching and all that but these are things that were still in his life due to lack of integrity. He was a good teacher of the Word. His church members agreed on that. But he didn’t obey the Word. He was a Pharisee. How did all this come into a man who loves God and studies the word?
It’s an ethical deception. You profess the Lordship of the Lord Jesus but your heart is set on gain.
Ezekiel 34:2-4 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool, and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.
Psalms 101:7 No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence
Revelations 21:8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters, and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.
It talks about all liars. It does not matter whether you are Christian or not. All liars.
1 Corinthians 6:9,10 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Whether you are a Christian or not if you’re swindling then you will come under judgment. Many people think I can do these things and then ask for forgiveness from God because He is so forgiving.
Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
You reap what you sow and God will not be mocked. God will judge us according to our understanding.
Proverbs 16:2 All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord.
We may think we are doing right. God judges differently. He judges our motives.
Sadly, such wrong ideas are found among Christian workers. We need to be careful of this. Everything is black and white in God. It’s either wrong or right. There is no middle ground in God. Somebody created in Church – white lie, grey lie.
A lie is a lie. There is no such thing as a white lie or a grey lie.
4. Moral deception
Sometimes, Christians say “If it feels good and it is not hurting anybody then it’s okay. God understands.”
Psalms 119: 105 Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
In everything we do the direction and the content of what we do comes from the Word. It’s not based on our emotions but it is based on what the Word of God says.
5. Intellectual deception
Sometimes when we start to grow and we understand the Word we begin to interpret the Word according to our own understanding. We may consider it equal or even superior to what God is saying.
We become so “familiar” with God and interpret thinking – “This is what God is saying.” That is a very dangerous thought because we know from scripture His thoughts are never our thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8,9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
1 Corinthians 2:9-13 However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”
the things God has prepared for those who love him
these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.
There are many hidden things but unless the Holy Spirit chooses to reveal that we cannot understand.
From our own understanding, we can never reach or understand what God is saying. What happens is sometimes ego comes in. Other times spirits confuse us. We misinterpret the Word of God. We interpret from past experiences. “Last time I interpreted the Word like this and it worked for me so I will interpret it the same way” and so on. All these are dangerous habits.
The best example to consider is, that every time David went out to battle, he enquired of the Lord. Seven times he enquired of the Lord. Every time it was a different strategy.
We must never assume that God works in the same way.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have the divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Anything that challenges the Written Word of God, the Spoken Word of God we must subdue it.
Romans 8:14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
Who are the mature Sons of God? Those who are led by what the Spirit says are the mature sons Of God. So, we have to be careful of intellectual deception.
Sometimes, when we talk with those who have the so-called “intimate knowledge of the Word” like they have done a Ph.D. and all that, they interpret the Word in their own understanding because they think they have covered all the “Science of interpretation.” They assume their way of interpreting is correct.
That’s why in traditional churches the Holy Spirit is not given freedom because of all these intellectual things happening. Since they are so highly educated in Theology they begin to understand from their point of view. They don’t give room for the Holy Spirit to come in.
6. Mystical deception
This encompasses experiencing dreams, visions, angels, voices, bright lights, etc.,
2 Corinthians 11:14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
Example: John Alexander Dowie. He was a healing evangelist. In his later days, he built the city called Zion and he thought himself to be Elijah. Another example is the founder of Mormon. He thought he actually saw Peter, James, and Paul. He thought he saw Jesus. All these are deceiving spirits and familiar spirits that come and deceive them. So, we must know how to operate. They always operate on half-truths. That means whatever they say we can’t contest because it sounds like truth but it is not totally true.
Whatever we receive we should bounce it off or check with people around us, above us, and of course, the Holy Spirit needs to convict us.
Sometimes we arrive at this position because something is already contaminated inside and that’s why the enemy has access here.
1 Timothy 4:1 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
Deceiving spirits or seducing spirits. What gives the seducing spirits space in our lives? Usually, it comes from unfulfilled desires in our hearts.
1 Peter 5:8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
Satan is always watching us. He doesn’t know what is in our minds but he listens to what we pray and what we speak. He observes us. From that, he draws information about us. That is how he profiles us. Once he profiles us, he plans his strategy according to his profile. He watches for unfulfilled desires. He focuses on pushing us to become self-reliant. We begin to focus more on the experiences and things we are seeing rather than building on the Word. We also fall for this because of our lack of knowledge. When we don’t have depth in the Word; we have a half-baked knowledge of the Word then He will use that to deceive us. He will see that we don’t fully understand the context and he will use that. He also plays on our pride.
Obadiah 1:3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’
We walk into deception because of pride. Certain things in our hearts, we self-elevate ourselves, and that draws Satan in and leads to our getting deceived. So, he works on rebellious, half-hearted obedience. He watches how we respond to God, how we honor God, critical spirits, fearful spirits, etc., The key thing is what is already in our hearts is what will attract the seducing spirits.
Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
The heart is the well-spring of life. If that is protected, the enemy has no access. He watches us, he listens to our murmurs, complaints, and anything that he can use to deceive us. Remember it is not to cause you to backslide but to take away your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
2 Timothy 3:2-5 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
They were all Christians but they became lovers of themselves, lovers of money, and
lovers of pleasure. Something must have been spotted by Satan in their lives for them to get seduced in that area. The enemy watches and sees that someone is a good Christian but, in his heart, he has a weakness for money. How did Satan spot Judas? By what Judas was doing. He saw – ‘Ok. This guy behaving this way with money so I will hit him this way.’
Satan is always going to be looking for weaknesses in our hearts that he can exploit.
7. Spiritual deception
2 Peter 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them–bringing swift destruction on themselves.
First, it comes through teachings. Example – Grace message, Salvation only message, etc., In countries like India, the place where most people are led astray is gifts and grace.
Mathew 24:24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
This is the greatest problem here. Somehow, many people think that if the gifts and grace are operating through them, we can believe them. The Bible already explains how they would be doing these miracles.
Revelation 16:13-14 And I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs leap from the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. They are demonic spirits who work miracles and go out to all the rulers of the world to gather them for battle against the Lord on that great judgment day of God the Almighty.
This gives an insight into how they can perform those miracles. It is probably the same spirits operating in the hearts of the people who are not walking with God.
The moment you walk off track as a Christian you open a door for impure spirits to enter. It may look the same and feel the same, but it is leading us in a direction towards self.
We may be doing ministry for Christ but it is leading towards self.
The way to be careful is we don’t measure our Christian walk this way
- We do not measure by the external, we measure the inside
- We don’t judge by activities
- We don’t judge by extraordinary experiences
- We don’t measure by conscience. Example – My conscience feels ok so I am ok. We measure only by the Word of God
- We don’t measure by good intentions. We may have good intentions but that’s not what counts. What counts is what we actually do in practice
- We don’t measure by the gifts but by the grace that God builds in us.
Ephesians 3:7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power.
7. We don’t measure by outward blessings Remember the Laodicean Church?
Revelation 3:17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.
So how can we examine ourselves?
- We need to examine us from God’s perspective. We seek God. We ask the Holy Spirit to convict us and show us. We use the Word of God to measure our life. Then we understand what God’s perspective is
Psalms 139:23, 24 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the way everlasting
2. We measure by the evidence of Christ’s work in our lives. We always have a blind side which is why we need somebody else to measure us.
Corinthians 13:5 Test and evaluate yourselves to see whether you are in the faith and living your lives as [committed] believers. Examine yourselves [not me]! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves [by an ongoing experience] that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test and are rejected as counterfeit?
The measurement here is not the assurance of Salvation but the evidence of Christ’s work in our lives. The word test used here in Greek is the same word they use for testing metals. To test the quality of metals it has to be tested by fire. This we have to do on ourselves. So how do we test ourselves? What instrument can we use?
When we go through difficult experiences and trials in our lives, we can observe how we respond in a situation. We have to be conscious of what is in our hearts. That is what it means to test ourselves.
How am I able to release my heart? How I am able to forgive? All these things measure and test us. We need this because in normal times we are “Mr. Love” or “Ms. Love.” We love everybody. But the moment offense comes, somebody does something to us, somebody touches a raw nerve in us, we can see how we respond. All these are tests. The fire causes pain right?
Galatians 6:3-5 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. For each one will bear his own load.
We must examine our works. Works mean what we do and the fruits we produce. Observe what is happening there. Is God’s name glorified? Are our lives being built or are we just doing the work for the sake of work?
Proverbs 4:18 The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.
If we are walking with Christ our light increases. We go from glory to glory and strength to strength.
As we grow older the Bible says that the body is one day closer to death. It is difficult to accept but it is actually true. Even so, our spirit must be becoming more and more sharp; more and more strong. Wisdom must be increasing. When we are walking with Christ all the Godly qualities must be increasing.
If we are walking with Christ and we lack the wisdom to deal with things or we have no spiritual strength to rise above things. Something is wrong somewhere. It means there is a bottleneck somewhere.
That is why we need to examine ourselves from God’s perspective, our works, and our fruits.
Let’s close with this Scripture. This is a very important Scripture because Peter wrote it a few weeks before he died.
This is a dying man’s letter to the Church. If there was anything he wanted to tell the Church before he died, this was the thing.
2 Peter 1:3-12 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need to live a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins. So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away. Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore, I will always remind you about these things—even though you already know them and are standing firm in the truth you have been taught.
Verse 3 simply means the Holy Spirit.
Verse 4 talks about the Word the promises God has given us.
Verse 5 means – He makes it clear; you have to make every effort.
The partnership between the Word, the Holy Spirit, and us.
The Word and the Holy Spirit cannot do anything without us. Everything in Christian life is a decision. The devil can say many things. The Holy Spirit can say many things. End of the day, we are the ones who are going to make a decision. No one is going to come and make a decision for us. So, we must be clear about who we are listening to and what we are listening to.
The whole thing about “Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence” is –
In Church people believe in Jesus. They understand we must be rooted.
Colossians 2:6,7 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
They are rooted but sometimes in Church, pastors say – “You just pray. Whatever problem comes, you pray.” When they pray and prayers are answered their faith in God increases. But their attitude, character, and all other things in them that need to become like Christ remain unchanged. So, Peter in his last letter says add to your faith, moral character. The moral aspect of goodness is holiness. Without holiness, we cannot see God. So, add to your faith holiness. Without holiness, no one can see God. All other aspects are either the fruit of the Holy Spirit or the nature of Christ.
But the beauty is this. He gives us few promises.
- He says in verse 8 – If you possess these qualities in increasing measure, (that is if we are walking rightly with God we will be increasing in these qualities) we will have an effective and productive life.
- He says we will make our calling and election certain. The highest call of every Christian is to become like Christ
- It says you will never fall. If you do these things, you will never fall. This type of promise verse is found in only two places in the Bible. Psalms 15 David says if you do all this you will never fall.
Psalm 15
Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent?
Who may live on your holy mountain?
The one whose walk is blameless,
who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from their heart;
whose tongue utters no slander,
who does no wrong to a neighbor,
and casts no slur on others;
who despises a vile person
but honors those who fear the Lord;
who keeps an oath even when it hurts,
and does not change their mind;
who lends money to the poor without interest;
who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
Whoever does these things
will never be shaken.
He has already given us all we need. All we have to do is be built on this.
No other verse in the Bible talks about what to do to get a great reception in heaven. It says if you build your life this way, you will have a grand reception.
Earlier days we used to think the more souls we win the greater the reception. There is no scripture to qualify that. The only scripture about soul winning is “Whoever wins souls, is wise.” That does not undermine winning souls. That is also important. But this is the only Scripture that says about what determines the kind of reception you get in Heaven. It is based on the quality of your life. Peter’s instruction to the Church was no matter what you are doing concentrate on this. This was a dying man’s instruction to the church.
We must concentrate on this, no matter what is happening in our life. Even if we are having spiritual experiences or getting great revelations and receiving gifts from God, if it is not building our lives in this direction then we are blind and short-sighted. Why are we blind and short-sighted? Because we are missing the whole point.
What God wants to achieve in our life is that we become like Jesus.
If we do everything else except that then we are missing the whole point and we are blind and short-sighted! It is so clearly spelled out here.
This is the way we measure our lives.
– if you want an indestructible life, build it this way
– you don’t want to fall build your life this way
– if you want a great reception in Heaven build your life this way
– if you want a productive life build your life this way
It does not happen one by one. It happens according to God’s dealings. Just for the sequence, it was put in this way. It is also very important to hear the voice of God accurately because the enemy can also come in through a voice. In your walk with Christ, you may have read through the Bible, and you may have a rough idea of what the Word of God is. Then complacency and familiarity set in. When that comes, your heart and spirit will shut down any fresh revelations coming from God saying, “I know this scripture.”
An attitude of complacency and familiarity with the Word stops fresh revelation from coming in. When the Word comes and we begin to dwell on it, only then will God give a fresh revelation. He will begin to open up the Scripture.
That is why it is good to read Psalm 119. It is amazing how they appreciated the Word of God. One says I long for your Word and the other says I cling to your Word. Another one says I long for your Word more than silver and gold. What made them say all this? Why did they have such a desperation for the Word? What did they understand about the Word that we did not? It is important to discover, right? Many times, we use Psalm 119:105. There are other aspects to the Word in that Psalm. One verse says, “I do not fear the persecution of the ruler, but I fear your Word.” That means to say you don’t fear the Prime Minister of the country, but you fear the Word of God. They found a secret in the Word of God; we need to discover it.
There is another aspect we need to discover. Whenever the Bible talks about our relationship with God it is not only as our Father. There is another aspect of Jesus as our bridegroom, as the lover of our soul. We got to discover that loving relationship with him. Song of songs describes how he loves us and all of that.
Ephesians 5:31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”
It uses marriage as an example. The physical intimacy between a man and a woman is the ultimate example of our relationship with God. God is looking for that kind of intimacy. Everything will work from our love for him. We must make that effort to go deeper in love with Him.
Everybody says we love God but remembering King Solomon, we know if our heart issues are not dealt with other things may override our love for God. It is a conscious, deliberate walk with God. That is why the greatest deception is to lose our love for Christ. That is why Paul was concerned about our devotion and also our love life with Christ.
If the enemy can hit our love life with Christ, then all other things will fizzle out.
Satan can subtly introduce a Jesus that we like. We can actually create our own Jesus by the way we interpret scripture.
Jesus of the Bible
- is coming back as a judge
- expects absolute obedience and submission to Him
- says – “You follow me I will make you.”
It is not about self-reliance or self or what we receive. We must be clear about the Jesus of the Bible.
Which is why we need to go deeper into the Word. When we lack understanding of the Word; we have only a half-baked knowledge of the Word we can be easily misled. The greatest deception is self-deception. Seducing spirits can only work on what is already in our hearts.
So, we must measure in the three ways the Bible teaches us. We see from the perspective of God; we test our spirits, and we test our works. So, any experience has to be tested in the light of the Word. We need to have His Word as our absolute boundaries. What is God’s expectation of us? If we never had a clear idea this is a good place to start. If there is any Word for the last generation, it is 2 Peter 1: 3-12. It is like the final exam answers. If we can focus and allow God to work on that then we are safe. Everything in our life, our walk, everything will be measured against this. If God says, you will never fall, that means you will never fall but we need to do our part to build our life that way. God does things according to His time and according to how we respond to Him. He gives the Word and His Spirit reminds us.
Rehoboth 